Maybe the Oculus Rift wasn’t meant for gaming after all

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In its current state, the Oculus Rift works best in a very controlled, tech-demo-like environment. Its worst experiences — ironically, considering the whole point of the device — are while gaming. The two best stock Rift demos — being a passenger on a roller coaster and walking around a sunny villa — are more about sitting back and checking out a static environment. Playing the most prominent officially compatible game for the Rift, Team Fortress 2, is an exercise in frustration and early adoption. Though the Rift is still very early in its lifecycle, perhaps the best use of the headset is for exploration, not interactive action.

Rather than a hacked-together mod for Skyrim, requiring an entire multidirectional treadmill, or ripping your hair out trying to mouse-look in TF2, design and development firm Tool rebuilt the town of South Park. No, this isn’t for a sequel to the recently released Stick of Truth, but made specifically to explore with the Oculus Rift.

The recreation of the town took the team just a few short weeks in June, and though simple and ultimately not full of content at every turn, the project represents what may be the best use for an Oculus Rift. Some of us have been saying for years now that the Rift is limited by reality — the very thing it’s trying to circumvent. Without a very expensive multidirectional treadmill attached, Rift users are stuck in place, and if they have to use a keyboard or mouse, they can’t even spin around on a swivel chair. The Rift does not lend itself to anything that requires quick reaction, but with the help of some nice headphones, the device does lend itself better to virtual exploration than anything else.

Sony’s Project Morpheus and the Oculus Rift are still being targeted toward gaming — “still” being a funny word to use, because for however long it feels like we’ve been hearing about the devices, they haven’t even remotely come close to a retail release. After Facebook purchased the Rift, the company did state that after the gaming applications, it’ll be looking for other uses — citing person-to-person communication as a driving force. However, the smoothest Rift experiences have undoubtedly been simple explorations, so maybe the genre’s destiny is to be used for games like Proteus and Gone Home rather than the pipe dream of using it for an MMO.

It’s a stop-and-smell-the-roses device, not a quickly-turn-around-and-aim-before-you-die device, but being immersed in a world intended for your gaze sure sounds more appealing than aiming in a first-person shooter with your head instead of a mouse.